


Family Bonding (tm)

by winterspirit13



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Angst, Collapsing, Drabble, Family Fluff, Fever, Flashbacks, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Good Brother Ben Hargreeves, Hurt/Comfort, Klaus Hargreeves Has PTSD, Klaus Hargreeves Needs A Hug, Oneshot, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Short & Sweet, Sick Character, Sick Klaus Hargreeves, Sick!Klaus, Sickfic, Team Bonding, Team as Family, Whump, dave is just mentioned, everyone else is in the fic, the mausoleum, they're dicks at first but its super fluffy in the end
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-01
Updated: 2019-05-01
Packaged: 2020-02-10 20:04:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18667435
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/winterspirit13/pseuds/winterspirit13
Summary: Anon's prompt: I would love to read a fic where Klaus is super unwell but his siblings kind of shrug it off until he collapses and gets really disoriented/delirious - that is when everyone kind of gets super concerned and stuff. Thank u!!When they decide to go on a family hiking trip, Klaus doesn't have the heart to say no. But he feels awful. The only trouble is that no one will listen to him, they just assume he's being dramatic and Klaus as usual.





	Family Bonding (tm)

“Luther… can’t we slow down a teensy bit? Not all of us have huge furry muscles,” whined Klaus. He felt awful – his head was stuffed and throbbing, his body was wracked with feverish chills, and all of his muscles ached. But today was the day for a Very Important Bonding Exercise!

Klaus had wanted to stay home and sleep, but the look on Vanya’s face… He went with them anyway, despite feeling like complete horseshit. It was almost funny how they planned things. They were going on a little hike as a family, trying to spend more time together and all that jazz. But even without their father looking over their shoulder, they still planned out things like it was some sort of mission. Hell, they had meetings to plan these things! Diego had even scouted out the location for their hike beforehand.

It was endearing, but Klaus just wished it was any other day they had planned this hike.

“And no one else does, Klaus! We’re just walking, we can rest when we get up to the top,” instructed Luther, his voice bordering on defensive, probably about the furry part of Klaus’ comment. Klaus groaned and fell behind a bit to walk next to five.  Being in nature sure seemed to make him just a tad less sassy – it must have been very different than the apocalypse. At the moment, the fresh air did little for him other than aggravate his sneeze.

“Ugh, I feel awful,” said Klaus. They were going up a slope and his head was pounding with each step. His lungs were so tight, he didn’t think he was getting much air in at all.

“Do you ever stop trying to get sympathy?” Okay, so Five’s sassiness? Not diluted as much as he thought.

He felt a little stung by his siblings’ lack of attention to his clear suffering, but Klaus tried to brush it off. “Why can’t anyone show any love for their poor sick brother?” Klaus threw himself into dramatics, voice wavering as if he were about to cry. He saw Diego shaking his head. He looked to Vanya who gave him a half-hearted smile and shrug.

“Klaus, just stop and tell them how you’re feeling,” insisted Ben, ever the voice of reason.

“Oh, because that’s gone so well? Klaus looked to his dead brother. Lucky bastard. At least if you were a ghost you didn’t have to feel this shitty.

“If you’re a ghost you have to be stuck with your brother who consistently makes poor life decisions.” Klaus glared at Ben.

“Hey!” It always freaked him out how well he could read Klaus’ expressions, it gave him the sneaky impression that he was some freaky telepath. Well, that would be less freaky than eldritch tentacle monster in your chest, but still. He noticed Allison giving him a weird look. He stuck his tongue out at her.

Klaus let himself fall into a steady silence after that, managing to mostly follow the conversation of his siblings. They were chatting, laughing – acting more like a family then he thinks they ever really had before.

He just couldn’t keep up with the details enough to contribute to anything. Vaguely, he noticed that Ben’s comments to him started getting less reprimanding and more concerned, fading into worried looks.

God, he felt horrible. His head was spinning. If he thought it was difficult to breath earlier, well that was easy-peasy compared to now! He knew that it was warm out, but his skin felt freezing, and all his shivering just made his muscles ache even more. When they came to a few steps of stairs, Klaus’ vision got spotty.

“H-hey guys? Can we stop for a second? I’m not feeling too great…” said Klaus, his voice quiet, in stark contrast of his usual dramatic lilt.

Luther glanced back at him, and then to the trail in front of them. “We only have a minute or two to the top, we should just go. Drink some water or something, maybe stop smoking,” said Luther. Ouch.

His sibling knew he was sober from everything at the moment, but he couldn’t bring the energy to argue with Luther’s callous statement. Ben looked ready to throw down.

…why? Klaus stared at Ben’s angry face. He thinks that his lips were moving, but he couldn’t see what he was saying. He couldn’t remember if that was important or not. His vision was narrowing, so he stopped, leaning against a tree.

His siblings kept walking. Were they going to leave him alone? Klaus felt a flicker of panic in his chest. He wanted to go home, wanted to be in bed, but he didn’t want to be alone. He tried to step forward to go after them, but his knees buckled, and he found himself on the dirt trail.

His head swam, the dizziness not subsiding even though he was no longer standing. It took all of his focus just to keep from throwing up as his stomach flipped uncomfortably.  

The next thing he knew, he was surrounded by concerned voices. “Klaus? Klaus, can you hear me?”

“Klaus, are you alright?”

“Dammit, Klaus!”

He whimpered. There were too many voices, they were loud and sounded angry. He tried to scoot back, but he was backed up against a tree. Trapped.

His mind flickered to somewhere else, dark, damp, cold. He was huddled in the corner, cold stone the only thing that ground him at that moment, but it was the same thing that trapped him there. The voices were calling his name over and over, louder each time. A hand reached out to him, and he turned away.

He wanted to close his eyes but he was terrified just as much of not seeing the ghosts as he was of seeing them. Klaus was frozen.

A hand touched his shoulder, gentle. No, that wasn’t right, was it? The dead couldn’t touch him. And they certainly wouldn’t be so gentle about it even if they could.

“Klaus? Hey, it’s me, it’s going to be alright,” said the voice. Was he having some sort of nightmare?

“D-dave?” Klaus called out blindly. He wasn’t sure what was going on, he could barely tell what was going on around him. Just that he felt awful like he was dying or something. “Dave, please!”

“Shit, he’s completely out of it – that fever can’t be safe at all.”

“I had no idea it was that bad…”

“We need to get him out of here, to a hospital asap!”

“I agree, we can’t risk it.”

Klaus focused in on one word, causing him to shake even more. He was trembling like a leaf. “No! No hospital, please, no hospital,” begged Klaus. There were so many dead there, all sick or gruesome and angry. The walls were filled with memories of overdoses and forced stays; no matter how awful he felt, he didn’t want to be there, not while he had any sort of say in it.

He felt two pairs of hands hoist him up. He blacked out briefly, head rushing with blood as his stomach twisted uncomfortably. Klaus groaned.

“Hey, it okay,” comforted one of his siblings. He thought it was Vanya, with such a gentle tone.

“We just need to get you back to the car, can you walk down with help?” That must have been Diego? Klaus shook his head. It was all he could do just not to pass out as it was.

He heard a sigh, and then a large pair of arms scooped him up bridal style. He nestled his face into the crook of his brother’s muscles. It was oddly comforting. “I’ve gotcha,” said Luther. He may be awkward at the comforting thing, but his voice was nonetheless comforting to Klaus in his current state.

Klaus faded in and out as they returned to the van. He only remembered the trip in flashes – the top of the trees and the sun in the leaves, someone – Allison? – holding his hand and squeezing.

“No hospital,” he asserted as the car came into the view. Luther sighed.

“It alright Klaus, no hospital. Mom can take care of you. We’re just going home.” Was that Five? Klaus quieted.

They got him into the car, and he quickly fell asleep on Vanya’s shoulder. Five sat next to him, letting Diego drive without complaint (for once).

He had seen his family killed once, he didn’t want Klaus hurt again.

When Klaus woke up, he still felt like shit. But his siblings – all of them, not just Ben – were there for him. Five thought he was sneaky, coming in when he thought Klaus was sleeping to watch over him. When Klaus got bored of his bedrest, Vanya came in, playing songs that captivated him (or occasionally, brought him to a peaceful sleep, which didn’t seem to offend her at all). Diego chatted with him, Luther brought him soup and tea, and Allison even read to him.

For once, Klaus didn’t feel like he was fucking everything up. Maybe it wasn’t a perfect hiking trip, but it seemed like family bonding was happening regardless.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you guys for reading! I can't believe I've been posting one-shots almost every day so far! This fandom is doing wonders for my motivation to write. I hope you guys enjoyed! One day I might just pick a reasonable timeline for my fics to happen at, but today is not the day. Vaguely post apocalypse with no time travel it is then. 
> 
> If you have any requests feel free to leave it in the comments or at my tumblr @readingwritingcrying! Thank you again and let me know what you thought! It really motivates me and makes my whole day <33


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